Marketing Automation: A Good or a Bad Idea?
Gone are the days when marketing was an easy task – checking urgent emails, running through meetings and appointments and updating a blog post. In today’s world of Marketing Automation, you need to try new things whether it is good or bad is the next question.
Marketers have to catch up with changing technologies and exponentially flourishing competition. In such situations, sitting and relaxing is not an option, even if they are on the top. Because the next bests are already working on their marketing.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was an option to sit and relax and have your marketing still stored out with some kind of Business Intelligence? Fortunately, there is something that can handle marketing for you – to some extent – which is automation.It is a buzzword that you might have heard about and plenty of marketers are already infatuated with.
What is Marketing Automation? To put it simply – Marketing Automation is automating the actions of marketing through a software. Marketers can automate repetitive tasks like email marketing, social media marketing or other related website actions. Marketing automation seamlessly handles the marketing tasks for you. It can be an add-on for your existing CRM services.
Is Marketing Automation the right solution for you?
Marketing Automation is a powerful tool and a personalized tool. Though automation isn’t a quick fix, but when used correctly, it can do wonders for your business. Not only does it contribute to a successful lead generation but also saves a huge amount of time. However, many businesses don’t know how to implement it correctly. In some cases, it can do more damage than good for your business.
Much has been discussed on the concept of Marketing Automation with conflicting conclusions. In the best scenario, automation equips marketers with highly personalized tools and tactics. Thereby, significantly amplify revenue generation and an outstanding return on investment.
Why is Marketing Automation good for you?
Marketing Automation works parallelly with the principles of inbound marketing approach. The major focus here is – a prospect as a whole. Automation takes in the data not only from emails but also from multiple channels. Emails, social media, pricing guides, catalogs and almost everything is consumed to gather as much prospects’ information as possible to build a CRM.
Marketers use the collected data to study the behaviors and patterns of the potential and existing customers which in turn allows them to understand challenges and interest and also lead and nurture prospects down the sales funnel. Marketing automation uses all kinds of channels and disperses it to get the relevant information of the right people at the right time. Overall, this help is creating a better user experience.
Another benefit of using Marketing Automation is – Saving Time. Automation can prove to be an aid in auto-scheduling social media posts or re-publishing content, thereby, allowing marketing teams to focus on more pressing tasks. It also assures that the company has a consistent online presence. Social media can be automated to update periodically using appropriate tools and a cautious approach. Also, events can be promoted by using suitable event promotion services.
Points to adhere to while choosing Marketing Automation
- It works the way it should when updated and new methodologies are incorporated into it. Reckoning on old and traditional methods does not guarantee the efficiency as expected from automation. Traditional automation results in low click rates, less email open rates, and delays.
- Using limited channels for automation generates irrelevant data. When multiple channels’ data are put together, it results in comprehensive pattern data that helps in lead generation and also lead nurturing.
- If marketer limits the amount of data in automation, it will fail to give enough information about the prospects – like where they fit and what their interests are. The output would be unenjoyable and will result in relatively poor customer experience.
- Sometimes, social media automation might result in inappropriate behaviors. Social media is more of a human experience. Not everything that can be automated should be automated.
The right time to invest in Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation works the best when you have strong inbound marketing strategy generating tons of new and organic leads that have to be fed down the sales pipeline. Automation apparently relies on a good number of leads’ data. Automaton will take the weight off your shoulder generating pure quality leads.
The right time to invest in Automation is when your content strategy is well thought out and mapped according to the customer’s’ journey, plus you have a multi-channel presence and marketing strategy running smoothing. Apart from these, good lead nurturing strategy is also essential. If you haven’t worked on it yet, it’s time to get it sorted first. It wouldn’t be worth the hassle if you don’t have a stable marketing strategy at its base.
Marketing Automation isn’t a shortcut, but it surely acts as a catalyst to enhance your business and save a lot of time and energy. With leads turn into customers and customers into delighted customers. It is a finest and fantastic tool for smooth transitions of leads. You can try and test with new techniques to automation process to keep showing positive results.